Parts of Asia looked to crack down on rising COVID-19 cases by conducting mass tests, while Saudi Arabia lifted travel restrictions on its citizens traveling to a few countries. DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
* Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of the news. ASIA-PACIFIC
* Thailand said on Friday it would abandon its much-criticized pre-registration process for foreign visitors and no longer require face masks to be worn in public. * North Korea abruptly stopped importing COVID-19 prevention and control products from China in May, trade data released by Beijing showed after the country bought face masks and ventilators from its neighbor in previous months.
EUROPE * The European Medicines Agency started a rolling review of a variant-adapted COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna on Friday, as coronavirus cases linked to Omicron sub-variants see an uptick in the region.
* British pilots at low-cost airline Ryanair have voted to accept a revised offer on post-COVID-19 pay restoration following negotiations, the BALPA trade union said. AMERICAS
* The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday recommended COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as six months. * Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said he had tested positive for COVID-19 and would carry out his duties at home.
AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST * Saudi Arabia lifted coronavirus travel restrictions on Monday on its citizens traveling to Turkey, India, Ethiopia, and Vietnam, the state news agency SPA reported.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS * A small Chinese study detailed in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal showed neutralizing antibodies against some Omicron sub-variants were largely undetectable after two doses of a Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, with a booster shot only partly restoring them.
* A modified coronavirus vaccine that targets the Omicron variant can be administered as a booster dose to broaden immunity, a technical advisory group set up by the World Health Organization said. * People infected with the earliest version of the Omicron variant, first identified in South Africa in November, may be vulnerable to reinfection with later versions of Omicron even if they have been vaccinated and boosted, new findings suggest.
ECONOMIC IMPACT * Japan’s government cut its view on factory output for the first time in seven months in June due to the hit to manufacturers from China’s hard-handed pandemic response.
* Global airlines hit out at governments for what the industry’s leading ambassador termed their “shambolic” handling of the COVID-19 crisis and urged nations to rip up the playbook of widespread border closures for any future pandemics.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
